Question: How can I be amidst strangers in daily life and maintain the intention for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: I see people on the street: one is thinking about how to write a book; another is a scientist, thinking about what experiment he will conduct, what he will discover; a third is in love, and you can see that he is completely absorbed in this feeling and sees nothing else; a fourth is terribly angry, do not go near him, something is happening inside him.

Everyone lives their own inner life. But I am not speaking about those who move around the street like zombies but about those who truly live. They live their inner life and this does not prevent them from functioning externally.

Of course, it is apparent that there is something in a person, some inner experience, something is burning inside them. Yet such things exist in our world as well. So what is special about our work? Perhaps only the underlying concept is distinct.

Admittedly, it is a bit more complex, because the idea itself belongs to the upper world, whereas the body and its functions reside in the lower world. However, even ordinary people experience such incongruities; as the saying goes: “His body is here, but his thoughts are somewhere else.”

Furthermore, I would say that it is actually easier for you than for someone who is in love. He spends his day thinking about when he will finally meet his beloved that evening, and the rest of the day feels dead to him. Or consider someone who is utterly exhausted and thinks only about when the workday will end so he can go home to rest or watch a soccer match.

But for you, it is different. Throughout your path, in the entire process you go through during the day, you can perceive within it the garments of the Shechina; you can observe how you relate to the Creator, and how you work with Him through all the garments of this world so as not to miss a single taste. In this way, you deliberately reveal all the garments of the Creator relative to yourself in order to relate to Him in the correct form.

This is not simple. We forget about it, and even if we do not forget, it transforms into a rather effective  means of spiritual advancement, to the greatest extent possible.

The easiest and most beneficial way to practice this is not with people but with inanimate objects. Rabash always said that it is best to work as he did: as a metalworker, a cobbler, or even as an office worker, although he specifically dealt with paperwork. In other words, with something inanimate.

Working with plants and animals is also manageable, but when you work on the speaking level, with people, that is what truly confuses you. They exert an influence on you by transmitting their inner state to you, and this serves as a distraction.

I work two hours a day receiving people, and that is like working ten hours in a factory. But working in a kitchen is a pleasure. There you can infuse your work with your intentions, your thoughts, your attitude, and everything else does not matter. But when people come and occupy your mind, they influence you. If something does not influence you (on a level lower than the speaking), that is excellent. Therefore, I do not see the difficulty.

On the contrary, in a monotonous steady job where you do not need to invest your mind and heart much, like a shoemaker, is best. Today, such work hardly exists. Every kind of work demands some degree of emotional or mental exertion. Nevertheless, it is highy desirable to engage in an occupation where you remain undisturbed, where your inner world remains your own private domain, and within it, you are free to live your own inner life.

Question: Is it considered good if it is easier and less burdensome?

Answer: It is not exactly about being easier or more convenient. It is simply that people bring their own elements into you and influence you with their inner world and their problems; when you are with them, you can hardly engage in your own inner work.

Question: Is this an opportunity to test yourself to see to what extent you are capable of engaging in this work?

Answer: If you attune yourself into someone else’s desire and work with it, then you can determine how you relate to it from one perspective or another. But that is not you acting entirely on your own.
The time we are living in is a special time.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/26, Rabash, “What Are Banners in the Work?”

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Working in the mode of bestowal is called life, much like the way our life unfolds. But unlike eternal life, our earthly life in a physical body comes to an end, and each of its moments is separated from the others alternating between states of lack and small, temporary fulfillments.

In the process where you constantly fill the Creator, since His vessel is boundless, you have the opportunity to continually increase your bestowal. This allows you to constantly experience eternal life, without end or limit, filling up, expanding, and extending yourself without limit.

Therefore, praising and exalting the Creator are means by which you can bring Him delight. If you have awareness of the greatness of the Creator, a sense of His glory, this gives you the ability to bestow naturally, much as it happens in this world. After all, when you meet a great person, you naturally want to give him something, serve him, be attentive, and show honor and respect.

Consequently, our challenge, while we remain in a state of concealment, lies in being able to visualize the greatness of the Creator. If we succeed in doing this, the Creator truly begins to reveal Himself to us little by little. Then, based on this revelation, we become capable of transforming His greatness into a form of reception, not for self-gratification, but for the sake of bestowal.

When the Creator is revealed, my vessels (Kelim) yearn to receive His unveiled, visible greatness. At that point, I perform a Tzimtzum (restriction), and a new phase of work begins, one through which I can receive for the sake of bestowal.

Before the Creator is revealed, I am capable only of bestowal for the sake of bestowal. But when the Creator is revealed, it is a sign that I have reached a state in which I am able to work in the mode of receiving for the sake of bestowal. Thus, opposite my desire to receive stands a pleasure that I can already restrain, and as if undergoing a phase shift, literally a complete inversion, transform into bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/26, Rabash “What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work?”

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Until a person comes to the final correction (Gmar Tikun), their entire path lies in faith above reason—both in Egypt and subsequently the desert. Along this path, we move from Lo Lishma (for the sake of receiving) to Lishma (for the sake of bestowing). This transition is brought about by the Creator according to a person’s efforts.

A person’s work is divided into two categories: 13 attributes and 12 qualities. The 13 attributes represent the definitions of the properties of abundance descending from above downward and are called Mazalot (streams of fortune, the signs of the Zodiac). This abundance arrives gradually; the light of Hochma (Ohr Hochma) trickles down from the Rosh (head) of Arich Anpin in the form of the “thirteen corrections of the Dikna (beard).”

When it reaches the lowest point, the created being must be corrected in order to receive this abundance within its own corrected vessels. This means that the created being subdivides its levels of reception into distinct parts, which are designated as the twelve tribes, the twelve specific parts of the work performed on the collective vessel (Kli).

Each of these parts entails its own specific work, its own unique banner—its own way to “break through” under the guidance of its banner. The nature of this work and these actions are completely different from one another, just as one spiritual encampment camp differs entirely from another.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/26, Rabash, “What Are Banners in the Work?”

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Matter and anti‑matter exist; things that are completely opposite to each other. But who can discover and evaluate this oppositeness? There must be some reference point, something intermediate, something opposite.

When a person receives a point in the heart, that is, a quality of the Creator, looks at all their other qualities from within it, at their overall form, and sees to what extent they are opposite to the Creator, then a feeling truly arises within them that is called “seriousness.” But this is not yet quite the seriousness that is necessary, because a person sees only his own oppositeness. So what? This is still not enough.

Well, fine, I am opposite to the Creator. Then one might say: “Go to the Master who made me!” From this we see that it is possible to exist even such a state without doing anything simply by treating the matter frivolously and continuing to exist in the same spirit.

True seriousness arises in a person after one sees through the point in the heart, and to the extent that one is allowed to see (even if only to a small measure for now), that everything they are composed of now is opposite to the Creator. This is not yet even “Ibur,” the state of an embryo.

After sensing one’s oppositeness, a person must come to humility; a state where one lowers oneself. What does this mean? Humility does not consist of my bowing my qualities before the qualities of the Creator, but in my accepting the advice to go “by faith above reason” with all my qualities.

The acceptance of work “above reason” is called work in seriousness. That is, it is not enough only to see one’s qualities; one must also relate to them correctly. And then, from this it naturally follows that the next state will be only one: prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?”

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